Use code SUMMERPRACTICE for a 25% discount on all On Demand Courses through August 31.

When did you stop breathing?

With Vimalasara Mason-John recorded on June 4, 2017.

Found our teachings useful? Help us continue our work and support your teachers with a donation. Here’s how.

We could say that the Buddha was teaching us to breath again. It’s said that the prince Siddhartha was sitting under a Bodhi tree, practicing the anapanasati (the mindfulness of breathing) when he gained enlightenment and became awake, a Buddha. He was aware of the whole experience of breathing. Through breathing he trained the mind to be sensitive to the body, rapture, pleasure, the mind, mental processes, impermanence, dispassion, cessation, relinquishment. And while breathing he learned to release the mind from suffering. In this session we explore turning towards experience with breathing.

Listen to the audio version below, or click here to download the mp3.

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Nirmala Werner

    Resting in Receptivity – Opening Up to What Liberates

    This session is an embodied, compassionate exploration through our body-mind-heart into life. The door is open. What we long for is already there. This practise invites you to undo and deeply rest into the wonder of an receptive presence. BY LAL DED, TRANSLATED BY JANE HIRSHFIELD:I was passionate,filled with longing,I searchedfar and wide. But the…

    Read More

  • Can We Know the End of the World?

    We find ourselves concerned with the state of the world yet we do not live in one world. Our inner world reveals significant differences from the outer world. The outer world offers a variety of impressions to people. It is not unusual to claim we live in different worlds. The one world view seems to…

    Read More

  • Kevin Griffin

    Integrity and Clarity: Foundations for Awakening

    Everything in Buddhist practice builds on ethics and morality. With this basis, meditation and insight unfold naturally. This talk will explore the connection between living a life of integrity and developing spiritual awakening

    Read More

  • Ralph Steele

    What Am I Doing In Here

    The practice of Mindfulness from breath to breath is essential.  If you have knowledge of the Four Noble Truths then you have the foundation; only practice is needed to gain insight into the Dharma.  As we go through our daily activities, working with the masculine and feminine elements within us, it takes the Right View…

    Read More

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of July 11, 2022

    This week’s topic is Mindfulness in Daily Life. Trying to practice mindfulness in the busyness of our daily lives can leave us confused or frustrated. We know the potential benefits of such a practice, but the different pace, sensory input and constant activity make it challenging to remember to practice, let alone develop a continuous sense of presence. In this week, we explore hands-on sustainable practices with fresh perspectives, free from idealistic expectations or guilt.

    Read More

  • Expanding our Understanding of Loving Kindness Practice

    Many of us have habitual ways of practicing loving kindness (metta), Some of us love loving kindness practice, and others find kindness practice difficult, or merely routine. Join Diana to explore a more expansive approach to loving kindness where we learn at least three different types of kindness practice. We’ll discover the roots of these…

    Read More